Wednesday, September 8, 2010

After the Quake - Wednesday: Secret Storage?

Tremors still continue, but not as disturbing last night as the night before. Something which intrigues me, but is also amazing and pleasing, is that after a disaster like this, some things work very well. So around the city one can see workers on roofs taking down chimneys brick by brick, there are cranes turning up to help that process on the two-storied houses, then there are diggers and loaders wherever needed to demolish buildings, scoop up sand deposited by liquefaction. Then there are engineers, seemingly available within a day or so, here, there and everywhere to certify buildings as safe or not safe.

Where are these people and equipment in normal life? Are they kept in a secret storage depot ready to be brought out when extreme need for them presents itself? :) Somewhere in the centre of our city an excellently co-ordinated operation involving civil defence, the council, police, army and other organisations is taking place with superb efficiency. Well done!

On my immediate watch, the future of Theology House, some progress was made yesterday as engineers came to inspect the building. They pointed out that mostly it was safe, and if some work is done on removing loose bricks, we should be up and operational. Oh, and some decently fixed tarpaulins would be required to keep the rain out of the gaps in the walls until proper repairs can take place. Now, can we find some kind of lifting device to get a brick loosener and a tarpaulin fastener up high ... and we will probably need a crane to get someone up to take down an old, disused chimney off the roof.

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